Don't pass the buck, Mac

It is now five months since this humble column suggested Apple was refusing to acknowledge and fix problems with its modems in recent iMacs, iBooks and eMacs that were cutting off dial-up connections.

The faults had been occurring since last December. In June, when it first came to our attention, Apple had done nothing to alert dealers or users. The first complaints we received were exclusively from subscribers to Telstra's BigPond network. When users complained to Apple, they were assured the problem was at the BigPond end and they should switch ISPs. At least one was told to buy an external modem.

The official Apple line was: "All other ISPs work perfectly well with Apple computers and, until Telstra fix this issue, the only recommendation that can be made is to change your ISP. Your iBook is not at fault and will continue to work to specification using another ISP."

We suggested in our article that the fault was not confined to BigPond and that because it also affected users of other networks it was therefore more likely to lie in the Apple hardware and/or software. We quoted a report from Lucent Technology that pointed the finger at the Apple software that controls the new HCF chipset from Connexant incorporated in the Mac modems. It suggested that after the modems had been working for five to 10 minutes, the circuit heated up, shifted the speed from the initial connect speed and broke the connection. When the Macs were warmed up before connection, the problem seemed to disappear.

After the article was published, readers in New Zealand and the United States told us they were experiencing similar problems.
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But most e-mails from Mac owners assured us the problem could not have been with Apple and was clearly the fault of BigPond.

We made several calls to Apple and to BigPond, hoping to concentrate their minds on producing a solution. Finally, in September, Apple posted an "updater" on its Asian site, www.asia.apple.com/modemupdater.

Even when Apple posted that fix, it tried to point the finger at Telstra. "Internet access requires a compatible Internet service provider," it declared. "Some Telstra customers in Australia using an Apple Macintosh are experiencing drop-out issues. This update has only been qualified for systems that utilise the Telstra network for Internet access."

Meanwhile, users in other parts of the world struggled futilely with changes to their scripts, PPP settings and network connections. Others were told to throttle back their modem speeds. They disconnected all other phone equipment, had their phone lines tested, reset their Macs etc.

As late as October 27, a user was assured by an Apple engineer that it was the first time he had come across such a problem.

Unfortunately for Apple, users in the US, Britain, New Zealand and other parts of the world heard about our story and discovered the so-called "Asian updater". They applied the patches that were allegedly qualified only for systems using the Telstra network and discovered they solved their problems. You can read the tangled history at discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?14@217.C3VsaxZ5dY2.0@.f02a1af/305.

Since then, the updater has apparently been incorporated into version 10.2.2 of Mac OS X. If you're still having problems, either apply one of the updaters or upgrade to OS X 10.2.2.

We think we've established that Apple has problems communicating with its users and, for that matter, with its technical support department. We think it would benefit the company's culture immensely were Apple to accept responsibility for the problem and stop trying to pass the buck to Telstra. It would be nice, too, if Apple refunded the cost of those external modems.